The Therapeutic Use of Dreams Induced by Hypnotic Suggestion

Hypnosis was the immediate predecessor of psychoanalysis in the study of unconscious mental activity. Freud himself evolved his psychoanalytic theories after he had investigated the phenomena and therapeutic limitations of hypnotic technique. In later years he cited facts of hypnosis to elaborate his theories of the unconscious and particularly stressed the bond between patient and hypnotist as a reproduction of primitive stages in the formation of the superego. In this connection he did not fail to point out elements of hypnosis which underlie the relationship between the patient and the psychoanalyst. Actually, however, Freud made no further direct use of the hypnotic technique after he was once well launched in psychoanalytic therapy. At one point in his writings, he stated that he personally did not feel quite comfortable in the use of hypnotism, and there is, to be sure, a certain incompatibility between hypnosis and psychoanalytic therapy. Hypnosis depends to a great extent on the patient's surrender of conscious control over his memory and impulses to the physician. As hypnosis has usually been practiced, the patient may be relieved of his symptoms but does not understand why he became ill or how he was cured. Striking symptomatic relief is often obtained in this way, but the essential nature of the neurosis is not resolved. It is toward the more fundamental cure of the condition that psychoanalysis is directed. In the course of the latter procedure, the patient is guided to the recollection of forgotten traumatic experiences, gains insight into the nature of his ailment, and plays an active rôle in the cure. Perhaps the most important dynamic difference between hypnosis and psychoanalysis is their diversity of